Happy Holidays!

Dr. Tyler
Dr. Andrew

Merry Christmas!

Sweet Little Boy

Ty doesn't nap much anymore, but today he just couldn't fight it anymore.

Things are going smoothly down here in Emery County. The Christmas tree and lights are up, and the shopping is nearly done. I have a quirky biased against the whole Santa Clause thing, so we haven't talked about him with the boys. We've been just saying that Christmas is Jesus' birthday. And he knows that he's getting presents from Mom and Dad. Ty kind of gets the birthday idea, but how we would have Jesus' birthday is a stretch for him. I'm actually really pleased that they don't have this idea of some secret man bringing presents. Hopefully we'll be able to keep that out of our traditions without ruining it for the other families in the years to come though.

The boys are really missing their outdoor time. Even though the weather has been pretty warm for December, I haven't been making the effort to get them out everyday. Today Ty finally begged to go out, so we went out for 40 minutes. I was very ready to come in, but the boys were loving playing in the sand, and with their bikes, and sports toys. Daddy's return from work finally enticed them in.

Andrew's surgery is scheduled for Dec 29. (The surgeon recommended that we wait until after Christmas, just to make sure we could have Christmas at home.) We'll actually check in the day before and start bowel prep. They will run clear fluids through his g-tube all day to clean his colon, just in-case they need to use it if there is not enough esophagus. He will only be allowed to drink clear fluids for 24 hours before surgery.

The surgery is a minimum of 6 hours. I think when we did surgery last year they said it could be 10 if they have to use the colon. Last time it took 6 hours. Then he'll be on lots of pain meds, so he'll be on a ventilator for a few days. 7 days after surgery, Andrew will have an esophagram to see if the esophagus is healed enough to hold fluids in. If it is healed he will be allowed to start eating. If the fluid leaks then we will wait in the hospital until it is healed better. Sometime after he's allowed to start eating we will be allowed to go home.

I am so glad that our surgeon is thinking of what's best for Andrew and has decided to put a GJ tube back in. So the week that he's not allowed to eat, he'll be tube fed into his intestine. That way his esophagus is protected from any reflux, but Andrew won't feel hungry, and it's much healthier than IV nutrition.

I'll try to keep the blog, or at least Facebook, updated as we go through this. Tyler will be my mom the day of surgery, then with Ryan or I as we take turns staying at the hospital until the New Year. Then Grandma Shell and Grandpa Steve will be watching him while Ryan works. I'm sure it will be wearing on all of us, but we hoping that this will be the thing to ultimately allow Andrew to have a healthy esophagus and not need anymore hospital procedures.

Please keep him in your prayers.

Have a very Merry Christmas!